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@man met gmm @new F. STEOTHMANN, 0E LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, AssIGNoR To PETERS,

' WEBB, AND oo.

Lettera Patent No. 61,483, dated January 22, 1867.

SOUNDING-BOARD POR PIAN OS.

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TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Be it known that IF. STROTHMANN, of Louisville, in the county of Jeierson, and State of Kentucky, have invented new and useful improvements in Sounding-Boards for Piano Fortes, etc.; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying `drawings, forming part of this specification.

The principle of this invention consists in cutting off, by means to be hereinafter described, the vibratcry action of certain parts of the sound-board of piano fortes, where such action is only detrimental to purity of tone, -and in concentrating the same within a certain portion of the board, where vibration is requisite in order t0 give to the'instrument its proper degree of sonorousness. In the accompanying plate of drawings my improreB ments in sounding-boards for piano fortes are illustratedv Figure lrbeing a plan or top View; and

Figure 2 a transverse vertical section, taken in the plane of vthe line x iig. I.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts.

A, in the drawings, represents the case ot' the piano forte, which is of that class known as the square piano forte, and B its sounding-board, which is made of the wood usually employed therefor, or of any otherl suitable wood or other material. Under the piece C is a solid block of wood, placed beneath the sound-board at the right-hand rear corner of the instrument,.where it is secured to the piano forte case, the sounding-board being firmly glued to this block, thus cutting oifall vibration of that part of the board embraced between said block and the end andy back of the instrument` at the rear right-hand corner, which part in the drawings is marked D. E2 two curved metallic bars, the one, E, running above the sounding-board, and the other, E2, below, but both directly over each other, with the sounding-board between as stated, the two being firmly secured together and to the board by screws F, and at one end, K, to the front blocking G, at a point toward its lefthand end, passing under the front bar I, of the iron frame, to which it is secured, and at its other, L, to the solid block M, into which the tuning-pins are driven; the said bars extending across the sounding-board from its front to its rear side, `cutting it, as it were, into parts N and O, therone part, N, embracing all of the sounding-board between its left-hand end and the said bars, and the other part, O, the remaining portion of the board between the said bars and the rear corner end-block hereinbefore referred to; this part, O, carrying the bridges P of the board for the strings. The point at which the bars E E2 terminate is at or near the junction of the treble over-brace with the iron frame atk the back of the piano case. By means of the barsE :E2 the sound is confined to the portion of the board marked O in the drawings.

I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent--A The improvements in sounding-boards for piano fortes, and other musical instruments, herein specified, the same consisting in separating or dividing the board, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

F. STROTHMANN. Witnesses P. G. BRYAN, B. TEUPE.' 

